The One That Got Away
by Grignard
Summary: Tag to S02E12, The One That Got Away. Thanks to Monica's revelation, Mark Monfort finds how easy it is to share his heart with someone who knows how to love.
1. Chapter 1

_This story is based following the episode "The One That Got Away" from Touched by an Angel season 2. To recap, Doug, Lisa's fiancée, committed suicide after he was discovered to be cheating on his exams in college. Mutual friends of Doug: Susan and Mark are reunited at a friend's wedding six years later with Lisa as the Maid of Honor. Mark is determined not to let Susan get away, but Susan, it turns out, was the one who altered the test so she could get Doug's US Attorney's position. It's hinted that Mark should accept Lisa's love instead.  
_

* * *

The One That Got Away

" _All I said was 'Hi.'"_

" _That's enough."_

Mark Monfort couldn't believe all that had happened within the past 24 hours. He had come to Wendy's wedding, this impromptu college reunion, to make amends with Susan Duplain. His co-workers over in his international practice groaned every time he brought up his ex-girlfriend, the one that got away.

They had parted on such terrible terms! During the three years of struggling through law school together, they had been inseparable. And yet she knew, knew for certain, that the mention of her following Mark to Europe was repugnant to him. Sure, he would have been willing to marry her after a few years apart, while he explored the wilds of international law and she participated in the steps needed for her to become a judge. It would have been perfect.

Doug's acceptance of the US Attorney's position changed everything though. Right after his best friend's announcement, it had been her idea to end their relationship. Mark was just an unwitting pawn in her schemes, thrown away and discarded after living out his usefulness.

Poor Doug had suffered the price. Doug Richards, his best friend.

And Lisa, sweet Lisa.

Lisa Magdaleno had been Doug's vocal supporter throughout their law school days, and the man's unwavering girlfriend. While Mark and Susan had their ups and downs, Lisa was the steady rock in their quartet (quintet if Gale was around). Hers was always the proverbial shoulder to cry on. Doug may have been his best friend, and Susan his girlfriend, but Lisa always had a special place in his heart.

Even now after the terrible ordeal, and thanks to the revelation from Monica the angel, Mark could feel a smile on his face through the pain of the bump on the back of his head.

Lisa looked adorable in that awful bridesmaid's vest that Wendy had made them wear. The two were grinning at each other like fools in the swaying car, but the thought at what waited at the front of the train soon sobered Mark up.

Mark held Lisa's eyes with his own, hoping to convey all of the concern he had for her.

"Lisa, you have to come with me, and it's going to be painful, but I promise you everything will be alright."

The dark blonde eyes' widened in surprise, but replied faithfully, "I trust you, Mark."

The prodigal son took a steady breath, feeling his heart flutter inside his chest that had never occurred with Susan before.

Making their way to the front of the car, Mark told the train's conductor to call the police while keeping an eye on the proud, cruel woman that greeted the pair. Lisa, ever kind hearted, rushed forward to help the disheveled looking Susan, but Mark held her back with a firm grip around her waist. He could feel Lisa lean subconsciously into his body as the trio waited. How long had it been since she was so lovingly held? Probably just as long as it had been for him.

As the flashing lights of the squad car greeted him at the train station, Mark couldn't help but notice how different his departure had been from his entrance. So sure of righting the wrong of his breakup with Susan, in truth he had only been deluding himself.

He explained the situation to the cops – Susan's extortion of the comatose judge and her attempt on Mark's life, and lastly the woman's betrayal of their mutual friend. Lisa let out a strangled scream at his words, collapsing against his chest in horror.

Mark had a sickening thought. Was this how she reacted in seeing Doug's lifeless body in his dorm room?

He hadn't been there for her then, but he certainly would be for her now. He clutched her to his body, stroking the back of her head with his hand as he whispered soothing words into her ear. He glanced up at Susan only to see not a single trace of remorse in her emotionless eyes. All of their lives had been ruined by her selfish action! But he knew that he and Lisa could pick up the pieces, together.

The police made a note to see if Gale Harper would be willing to talk to them about his case of the suicidal judge.

Lisa gave a waterly laugh. It would take getting the talkative man to shut up that would be the least of their worries.

Mark couldn't help but kiss her forehead affectionately. Even in the midst of pain could the crying woman still find time to laugh. What a godsend she was!

The weeping woman sniffled quietly. Susan of all people! Her friend, who had fixed her bridesmaid vest and comforted her after she had had too much to drink at the wedding. Another betrayal by someone she loved.

But there was one who would never deceive her.

The police took away Susan in their squad car after taking down Mark's statement and information. He knew that the federal bench nominee wouldn't be imprisoned tonight. She had the wealth and connections to make bail. Mark Monfort would have a long uphill battle even accusing a prominent figure such as herself of scandal.

Mark felt Lisa shiver in his hold. He let out a soft curse quickly covering her with his jacket. Again, he rolled his eyes at Wendy's insistence of a winter wedding.

He murmured to her, "C'mon. Let me take you home."

Somehow he had grabbed their bags and hailed a taxi, while navigating his old college friend into the warm cab.

"'Computers don't lie, but this one did.'"

Lisa's soft words broke the silence in the car ride and the stupor she had been in ever since Susan's treachery was revealed.

"I thought about it over and over again over the six years since it happened. The test has a time stamp, and Doug was halfway across campus talking with his professors about the US attorney's position. I'm sure that the electronic test system being disbanded soon after our year should be taken into account." Her face was filled with a new conviction. Already the legal jargon was coming back to Lisa like an old friend.

Mark agreed. It was ridiculous. Whoever heard of taking tests without photo identification, a test proctor, and on public networks like the school library?

He spoke to her gently, "You told me earlier, you and Doug could have handled anything together. You always were the strong one in the relationship, Lisa, and I'm sorry Doug never came to you before he took his life. I knew you would have done everything in your power to help him."

Maybe Mark could be just as useful in her life.

"Listen," he raised her chin to meet his eyes, "I need to look for a permanent place to stay and get reacquainted with the city again. How about you be my tour guide and I help you with taking the bar exam?"

Her doe eyes widened with surprise. "The bar?"

"Yeah, for Doug's sake. He would have wanted you to be more than a secretary in your father's law firm."

Lisa's eyes brightened for the first time since she had laid eyes on Mark in the wedding car. They had seemed only to do so around him.

It wasn't until he had walked her to her door did he realize he had been holding onto her hand the entire time.

He bid her a tender goodnight, promising to call her first thing in the morning.

Susan Duplain may have been the one that got away, Mark Monfort thought in the ride back to his hotel, but Lisa Magdaleno would be the one he would stay for.


	2. Chapter 2

Lisa awoke in her bed calmly and content for the first time in six years.

Was it all a dream?

Mark Monfort certainly was the man of her dreams. He managed to outmaneuver Susan's treachery and uncovered the truth about Doug's suicide. Instinctively she reached for Doug's note sitting on her bedside table.

No, enough. It was time to lay demons to rest.

She took the fragile handwritten note and delicately tucked it deep into the bottom of her jewelry box with her other keepsakes.

 _All my love, Doug, but it's time to move on._

 _TBAATBAATBAATBAATBAA_

Her father, reading the newspaper at the kitchen table, gaped at his little girl as she entered the room smiling, dressed in a brightly colored dress. Gone was the morose creature who had cried at the drop of a hat. She looked… happy.

Lisa kissed her father's cheek lovingly, a smile changing her features into a youthful look.

Before his daughter had left for her friend's wedding, she had been nervous even to the point of backing out. She would be seeing old college friends, each one a reminder of her fiancee's death. However, the promise of being a maid of honor held her to her obligation.

He held her hand and pulled her to sit next to him. "Sweetheart, you look nice today. Did you have a good time at the wedding?"

Her eyes brightened before she let out a half-hysterical laugh. "Yes, Daddy, you'll never believe what happened!"

 _TBAATBAATBAATBAATBAA_

Her father mulled over her tale, relieved to find out the truth for the first time in years. He had liked Doug Richards, even wanted to bring the boy into his own law firm. The youth, however, had aspirations of the Supreme Court and Lisa's father could see Doug had the drive to succeed in his goal.

Mark Monfort arriving on his front doorstep later that morning with coffee and flowers gave Lisa's father the hope that he could still have a son-in-law working with him at his practice.

 _TBAATBAATBAATBAATBAA_

The trial was an ordeal, even with Lisa's father's best lawyers at their disposal. Susan didn't get where she was by being stupid. Every single one of Mark's ghosts was laid out in the open to discredit his version of the story. It was no use however. The press had a field day seeing a lauded judge such as Susan Duplain being dragged through the muck. Gale Harper's testimony was damning seeing as how two people in connection with her committed or attempted suicide.

The press eagerly lapped up the tragic tale of Lisa Magdaleno as she took the stand, but the camera lights flashed even more fervently as they spotted the plaintiff leaving the courthouse with a comforting arm around the abandoned fiancée.

 _TBAATBAATBAATBAATBAA_

It had been a long year, but everyone that Susan had ever wronged in her lifetime could finally see justice being served as she was sentenced for her crimes. Everyone thought that the young pair would be off celebrating their victory with champagne.

Instead, Lisa and Mark went directly to Doug's gravesite, laying a red rose upon his tombstone.

Lisa spoke privately to Doug as Mark watched from afar. When she returned, he reached out to wipe a single tear from her eye. Kissing her forehead affectionately, he murmured, "No more tears, not while I'm around."

And she truly believed him.

 _TBAATBAATBAATBAATBAA_

The minute Lisa found out she had passed the bar examination, she had excitedly called Mark, only to discover he was already on her front doorstep holding the most beautiful bouquet of roses.

"I knew you had to have passed after all of the hours I spent tutoring you."

Lisa rolled her eyes and managed to wipe the smirk off his face by kissing him square on the lips.

After a few glorious seconds, Mark pulled away, staring at her glassy eyed and dazed, "That was our first kiss," he mumbled.

"And not our last," she answered, pulling on his tie to bring his mouth back to hers.

 _TBAATBAATBAATBAATBAA_

Doug's kisses had been quick and fleeting, those of a bashful youth in their early twenties.

Mark's kisses made her toes curl in her shoes. When he picked her up for lunch, judging from the envious looks thrown by the younger legal aides at her father's law firm (where she worked now as a lawyer and not a secretary, thank you very much), Lisa thought being thirty-one was not such a bad thing after all.

 _TBAATBAATBAATBAATBAA_

Mark walked arm and arm with Lisa on a quiet, moonlit stroll. Crickets chirped quietly in the night as the pair walked.

"I'm not Doug," he whispered his insecurity to the cool air. He could never replace her deceased fiancee.

She sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder, "No, you're not." And she never wanted him to try.

 _TBAATBAATBAATBAATBAA_

He proposes soon after and they decide on a small courthouse ceremony, only the justice of the peace and her father as witnesses. After the ordeal of Wendy's wedding and the exposure of their mutual friend, they decided that smaller would be better.

"And it's in June," Mark insisted, a joke which his bride found to be outrageously funny.

He thought no one he knew had been present to see his and Lisa's happy day, but a woman's deep voice whispering, "Hallelujah" caused him to whip his head around. A flash of long reddish-brown hair and a handsome man's congratulatory smile in the crowd... Mark jogged his way through the throng of people only to gaze with wonder at the object resting at his feet. He picked up the item reverently presenting the gift to his new wife.

Lisa cooed over the figurine: a pair of pure white, ceramic doves curled around each other, with the names "Mark" and "Lisa" inscribed on each.

"Who gave these to you?"

"Someone who told me to share my heart with someone who knows how to love."

 _TBAATBAATBAATBAATBAA_

Gale Harper finally bit the bullet and decided to marry his photographer girlfriend, Dolores. Each finery and bauble at his wedding was presented and displayed for all to see. _Look at how successful my lawfirm is!_ he wanted to shout. A beautiful bride, a successful practice, was there anyone who was luckier than he?

A sleek black car drove up outside the venue parking itself smoothly in front of Gale. A familiar man stepped out.

"Well lookie here, Mark Monfort!"

Gale had to bite back a groan. The man before him still had a full head of hair and a svelte figure. Gale had been thinning a little at the top and putting on a few pounds at his waistline, but his old college friend still looked the same.

Actually he looked better than when Gale last saw him at the trial of the century. Mark was relaxed, carefree, even grinning happily. He shook Gale's grip with a firm hand before releasing it quickly to walk to the passenger side of the car.

Mark opened the door before easing a woman carefully out from the passenger seat.

Gale's eyes bugged as he saw Lisa Magdaleno (make that Lisa Monfort) heavily pregnant appear beside the taller man. In his naïve college days, Gale had questioned the odds that everyone in their study group would marry each other. He would have never bet on Lisa and Mark tying the knot.

The couple gazed lovingly into each other's eyes before realizing they had an audience. The accident and personal injury lawyer could see her reflexively rub her heavy belly with her left hand, at the same time flashing a gorgeous 2 carat diamond ring.

So maybe there was somebody luckier than him.

 _TBAATBAATBAATBAATBAA_

The nurse carefully placed the sleeping baby into Lisa Monfort's arms. The father, Mark Monfort, laid a kiss delicately on the child's forehead. The babe cooed and slipped further into deeper slumber.

Addressing the new parents, the nurse smiled seeing the love they had for each other evident in the new trio.

"Have you decided on a name for your son?"

"Doug. His name is Doug."

* * *

 _I am_ obsessed _with this episode. Maybe because it's a handsome protagonist finding love with the broken girl, or it's the first appearance of the Angel of Death, Andrew (who was always very eye-catching to me), but I had to write a tag, or post-credits scene, to this wonderful show. Since I'm binge watching Touched by an Angel, there will be more to follow. As always TBAA does not belong to me and many lines have been taken directly from the episode._

 _Please review,  
Grignard_


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